Drought Declared In More Than 23 Mandals in AP

The state government has added 23 more mandals to the list of 268 mandals affected by drought in Andhra Pradesh. It was announced last month that 245 mandals from 7 districts in the state were drought affected.

The Commissioner of Disaster Management Department K Dhananjaya Reddy said that 23 of those mandals are from Prakasam district. A committee met and examined the submitted proposals and recommended that 23 mandals be added to the list. The district collector of Prakasam has submitted a proposal for 33 more mandals in his district to be declared drought affected.

The 268 mandals declared so far are from Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool, Nellore, Prakasam and Srikakulam. All the 63 mandals in Anantapur are drought hit, while 53 out of 66 in Chittoor, 36 out of 54 in Kurnool, 32 out of 51 in Kadapa, 27 out of 46 in Nellore and 11 out of 38 in Srikakulam are too.

Proposals from Visakhapatnam, Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari, West Godavari and Vizianagaram are awaited. The number of the drought affected mandals will surely increase once the proposals from the remaining districts are submitted.

Reportedly, this is one of the worst droughts that our state has faced. With no rains till September, all districts except the East and West Godavari face droughts. The number of drought effected mandals this year will most likely cross the number of 370 last year. The number would be more than 500 this year, if not for the rainfall witnessed in September.

Karnataka declared their drought hit mandals way before, while we are still in the process of doing so. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had previously asked all the state officials to finish the declaration by last month’s end.